functional programmers get to express their ideas as code
imperative programmers are so busy playing whack-a-mole with their bugs that they don't have time to think about new ideas
Stop drinking the cool-aid. Functional programming solves a lot of typing errors (if the given language has stronger typing than an imperative language) and makes composition easier in some cases (if the language is lazy).
But: an algorithmic error is still an algorithmic error, an incorrectly designed data structure is still an incorrectly designed data structure. No matter what language you use.
In addition to that, you get back a different set of problems: e.g. you have to reason about when something gets evaluated in a lazy regime in order for your program's heap not to blow up, and the translation to machine code is often not nearly as simple as an imperative language, which makes it harder to optimize functional programs.
Stop drinking the cool-aid. Functional programming solves a lot of typing errors (if the given language has stronger typing than an imperative language) and makes composition easier in some cases (if the language is lazy).
But: an algorithmic error is still an algorithmic error, an incorrectly designed data structure is still an incorrectly designed data structure. No matter what language you use.
In addition to that, you get back a different set of problems: e.g. you have to reason about when something gets evaluated in a lazy regime in order for your program's heap not to blow up, and the translation to machine code is often not nearly as simple as an imperative language, which makes it harder to optimize functional programs.
(Ps. I love functional programming.)